Hottest Toys In 2013 – Early Holiday List Thoughts

While these items may not have made our BSCKids Bestie list (which you can find here), that listed our top 10 toys of Toy Fair 2013, these products will be part of the hottest toys of the year. You are sure to find something on this list that will appeal to your kids for the upcoming year and stay tuned as we prepare some video of the products below and many other products for Toy Fair 2013. Stay on the edge of the curve while we talk about what toys and games you will want to purchase for the holiday season in 2013 (in no particular order).

From Hasbro we have a bunch of different items that will appeal to the kids. Based on the current weather situation let us take a look at the NERF SUPER SOAKER DOMINATION DRUM Accessory. What is the biggest problem of any water gun fight? Running out of water in your gun. We have all tried to fix this by going to the hose, using two guns, stashing water balloons, but nothing really works that well. Well, Nerf Super Soaker introduced the magazine style water guns which helped out with allowing you to just switch out a used magazine with a full one, yet some of us still complained. Now complain no longer as you have a bigger and badder Domination Drum to hold even more water.

B-DAMAN BREAKBOMBER BATTLEFIELD Set reminds me a bit of Terrible Tank, which is probably why I like it so much. It was easy to set up and gives a good level of competition between the players without making a huge mess. The NERF N-SPORTS CYBERHOOP Set is a new take on a classic Nerf basketball hoop. With this updated version you get to see yourself with the free app and some sort of Apple device with a camera. Witnessing it in person made for a really cool experience, my kids are going to LOVE this as they already enjoy playing basketball in the house. The BOP IT! Games have become fan favorites in the house, and if you want to ask me what toy gets played with more throughout a whole year, I would probably have to point to our BOP IT! Smash, so when we saw BOP IT! TETRIS Game, we gave it the thumbs up right then and there.

From Innovation First International, the makers of HEXBUG Products we have the AQUABOT and TAGAMOTO. This was the first time that we were able to see the TAGAMOTO product in person and we were impressed. The ability to have the cars interact with the track via codes that you place on the roads is a great way to be able to change-up tracks without moving pieces. Plus it makes the product very interactive and like a real road, hopefully people just don’t drive that fast in real life. The product that we found to be the highlight of the booth was the AQUABOT, The Robotic Fish that really swims. It really looks good in the water and I can only imagine what fun can be had in bathtubs, pools, aquariums. We are looking forward to a special project we want to do with some AQUABOTS so stay tuned for something cool when they get released.

Vtech Go! Go! Smart Wheels reminded me a bit of a younger version of the TAGAMOTO product, but instead of codes on the road you have SmartPoint locations which amount to something similar. For a younger age group than the TAGAMOTO product.

Sometimes you come across a gem, something you did not expect to like so much, from a company that may not be a household name. Clubs, from North Star Games, was one of those gems. As stated on their website, it is easy enough for the kids to learn and has enough strategy for adults, so it is a game you can pick up no matter what crowd you have. It reminds me a bit of hearts, but I knew they had me hooked when I played a few games during Toy Fair and almost missed another meeting because I was having so much fun.

If there was a sample that was being given out at Toy Fair that was a hot commodity it was StacheTATS. Everyday more and more people were going to the booth to get some samples and talk to the owners on a great product. We knew when we came home that our boys would just love them, as they have tried all sorts of stick on mustache products that have just not worked. Plus unlike those stick on products, or ones that go under the nose on a set of glasses, these are able to be worn while doing sports which makes for some fun events. My youngest son wore one during his swim meet over the winter, and I know both of the boys plan on wearing them during one of their summer swim meets.

Mattel and Fisher Price had a bunch of toys on our BSCKids Besties list, but they still had products we wanted to mention as hot toys for 2013. The Imaginext Apptivity Fortress was awesome. You can interact with the knight figure and the cannon when your iPad is inserted in the device, it was pretty neat that you could use this virtual cannon to shoot at people in your own living room. Disney Princess Klip Klop Stable by Little People was also something we would want for the house for our little girl. If you place Rapunzel or one of the other sold separately princesses on the ramp they will klip klop down on their horse. I am sure our daughter would play with this for hours and even if the batteries run out on the music your horses will still be klip klopping along. We just ran out of room on our Besties list or Disney Planes Pilot Pals Dusty Crophopper Remote Control Plane would have been on there. If you remember running around a room (or your kid) with your hands out pretending to be an airplane, this toy is perfect for you. You put some controllers on each of your hands and fly around the room and Dusty will mimic you when you tilt your wings and move. We love skee-ball in our family so HOT WHEELS Carcade is a great way to get your skee-ball in with some Hot Wheels. Best thing about the toy is that it keeps track of your score, it gives you a count down clock, all sorts of bells and whistles to get the top score. The Barbie Digital Dress Doll is another Mattel item that is on our list for hottest toys in 2013. The ability to use LED technology to create their own designs starts the young ones on their way to fashion designer. You can also choose from some already programmed graphics, and it also responds to sound and music.

Mega Bloks showed us two interesting properties. The first one being the new products in the Mega Bloks Barbie line, and the second one being Jeep, which looks to have gotten a ride on product. With the Glam Salon, Horse Stable and Super Star Stage coming from the Barbie line, you can expect a lot of girls wanting to get these for the holidays. With Jeep, I think the ride on products are just the start, I could see a whole line around them.

JAKKS Pacific Spy Net Lie Detector uses three high-tech sensors that look at brain activity, body temperature and more to see if someone is telling the truth. It uses either iOS or Android based devices to process this data and now you may be able to find out who ate all the cookies in the cookie jar. I would find myself wanting to use to find out who spilled the juice on the couch though, so parents make sure you don’t go crazy with this one.

A few of the non-toy products that you will want look into include Teddy Needs a Bath products. While the main product is a bag that allows you to wash your stuffed toys, we found the dryer sheets, Strawberry Cotton Candy Teddy Softeners, were one of our favorite products. The kids love the smell of their clothes and it just feels fresher than your regular dryer sheets. Nail Candy was a product that the wife kept going back to and back to. They call is nail polish in a pen and it is a professional nail polish with a Micro-Tip that allows you to do all of that super cool nail art. Much better than trying to use a brush or paying all that money to go to the salon. It also seems like a few of these would be great for a sleepover party.

Skylanders has become such a huge franchise, from the game, to the toys, it is seen everywhere. What better way than to follow-up with a new sequel that brings even more fun and imagination to the players. Skylanders Swap Force will let you reconfigure 16 SWAP Force characters into 250 unique combinations as well as use your current collection of characters. You will be able to all sorts of new things like flying, climbing, digging, bouncing, teleporting and even jumping. This will be another fantastic continuation to the series from what we were able to see.

Please make sure to check out the toys that won our BSCkids Besties Awards for Toy Fair 2013 and stay tuned for our ever popular 2013 Christmas/Holiday Gift Guide in October/November. This should help you get a head start on your holiday shopping and let us know if you have any questions. You can also see more video of these toys at our YouTube channel playlist.

About Damon Cap

Have three kids, two boys (10 and 8) and a girl (4). I had a grandfather that watched cartoons and read the Sunday funnies until he passed. I feel the same way and continue to watch the Disney channel in my 40s. Check out our BSCKids youtube channel